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Hour Of The Wolf: The Dandiest Stakhanovite Of Reykjavík Nightlife

If multitasking were a sport, night owl Ólafur Sverrir Traustason would be the undisputed champion. There are few people who can juggle four jobs and still maintain a state of almost constant calmness like this fashionable 27-year-old perennially clad in polished, sharp jackets.

“At the moment I divide my time between a record store, Monday Jazz nights at Húrra, late evening at Bíó Paradís and Dj’ing during the weekend,” Óli tells me. While he’s been doing this for years, he has no intention to stop until he can go back to studying music full time. Although his dandy appearance might look out of place against the dirty streets of late-night Reykjavík, he also fits in just perfectly with the capital’s quirky atmosphere.

A peculiar encounter

“It’s not that wild downtown,” he says, unimpressed. “I mean, I only organise jazz nights at Húrra now, but even when I was working full time on weekends I never had a problem with customers.” Even if he had gotten into a fight, I’m sure that suit of his wouldn’t have wrinkled one bit. Is he really implying that working night shifts at a bar does not expose him to weird characters?

“That’s what I’m saying,” he exclaims. “To be honest, my nights at Bíó Paradís turned out to be more eclectic than Húrra. This homeless guy used to come in all the time to just sit and hang out but once we found out he had been talking to customers inside one of the auditoria—something he wasn’t allowed to do. So I went looking for him everywhere,” he explains. “In the end I found him masturbating in front of a projector and a computer, with 25 tabs of porn open in front of him.”

“Man, that was odd,” Óli chuckles seraphically, before throwing his record bag on his shoulder, ready for his next adventure under the midnight sun.

What is the Reykjavik Grapevine?

Your essential guide to life, travel and entertainment in Iceland.
Iceland's biggest and most widely read tourist publication. Delivers comprehensive content on all of the main topics of discourse in Iceland at each time: in cultural life, politics or general social affairs. A grand, continuously updated database of Iceland's main restaurants, clubs, cafes, shops, museums, tours and tourist attractions as well as a thorough events listing